Alfred Newton

“ The genus Machaeropterus, consisting of four species, is very remarkable for the extraordinary form of some of the secondary wing-feathers in the males, in which the shaft is thickened and the webs changed in shape, as described and illustrated by P. L. Sclater (Proc. Zool. Society, 1860, p. 90; Ibis, 1862, p. 175 [2] ) in the case of the beautiful M. deliciosus, and it has been observed that the wing-bones of these birds are also much thickened, no doubt in correlation with this abnormal structure. ”

“ The manakins are peculiar to the Neotropical Region and have many of the habits of the titmouse family (Paridae) , living in deep forests, associating in small bands, and keeping continually in motion, but feeding almost wholly on the large soft berries of the different kinds of Melastoma. ”

“ The tail, in most species very short, has in others the middle feathers much elongated, and in one of the outer rectrices are attenuated and produced into threads. They have been divided (Brit. Mus. Cat. Birds, vol. xiv.) into nineteen genera with about seventy species, of which eighteen are included under Pipra itself. ”